Mike Wilkinson

Michael Joseph "Mike" Wilkinson ( Macedonian Мајкл Вилкинсон; born October 1, 1981 in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin) is a native American professional basketball player. In 2006 he accepted the citizenship of Macedonia and represented that country in international matches. He plays the position of power forward.

2.1 With the team
2.2 Personal Awards

Career as a player

College

Mike Wilkinson went to the Wisconsin Heights High School to school and was named in his senior year for " Wisconsin Mr. Basketball " as the best basketball player in his age group in the U.S. state. For the study, he remained in his state and moved in 2000 to the University of Wisconsin - Madison, whose high school team Badgers had previously returned to the Final Four of the national finals for the first time since the 1940s. In his first year sat Wilkinson from official games in the NCAA and signed up " redshirted ", which is used to get another game year in the otherwise limited to four seasons collegiate career. He then won under new coach Bo Ryan, together with the later NBA professionals Kirk Penney, Devin Harris and from 2002 Alando Tucker twice the regular season and in 2004 the final tournament in the Big Ten Conference, the oldest and one of the games strongest Conferences NCAA. This was the Badgers last also succeeded in the 1940s. In the national finals in 2003 they reached the knockout stages of "Sweet Sixteen" in 2005 and the quarter-finals " Elite Eight ". During his four- year run with the Badgers he was in every season of the best rebounders of his team and managed in eleven different categories made it into the top ten statistics university, among other things, for the most time played. After the end of his college career, he remained unconsidered in the Entry Draft of the NBA.

Europe

His first professional contract signed Wilkinson in Europe Aris Thessaloniki, which he managed in 2006 and 2007 and in the semi-final play-offs of the Greek League A1 Ethniki. The subsequent series for third place was gained just under and secured the bronze medal in the Greek championship. In European club competition ULEB Cup he played with Aris in 2006 in the final against Dynamo Moscow and lost. He then moved for two years in the Russian Super League and was awarded the Khimki basketball club from 2008 Russian Cup winner. He reached two times (2008, 2009) the final of the Russian Cup and lost both times against the series champion CSKA. He also reached the final of the Khimki once played out VTB United League PromoCup 2008. In this tournament, he was elected to the " All- Tournament team," the best player in the eight participating Eastern European professional teams. In 2009 he achieved with this club again the final of the ULEB Cup, which was now called Eurocup, and also lost it against the Lithuanian club Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius.

After a year in Turkey with Galatasaray Istanbul, which, however, he almost missed the play-offs to the Turkish Championship, Wilkinson returned for the 2010-2011 season to Russia. Here he first played together with Alando Tucker, his former teammate with the Badgers, for locomotive - Kuban, with which he reached the semi-finals of the Russian Cup and the final of the Euro Challenge. From the 2011/12 season he plays for the Eurocup 2010/11-Gewinner UNICS including in the highest European club competition ULEB Euro League 2011/ 12 together with Kelly McCarty, with whom he already played at BK Khimki. Here we immediately reached the quarter-final play-offs, but lost against the smooth favorite FC Barcelona, who had previously lost in 16 group matches only once. After coach Yevgeny Paschutin left the club, UNICS could not connect in the 2012/13 season on earlier successes. After the end of the season 2012/13 Wilkinson received a new contract more. End of January 2014 he signed a contract in Bulgaria Levski Sofia.

National

Since 2006, Mike Wilkinson has Macedonian citizenship and participated with the Macedonian national team in qualifying for the European Championship finals in 2007.

Awards and achievements

The team

ULEB Eurocup Vice: 2006, 2009
Vice- Russian Championship: 2008, 2009
Russian Cup winner: 2008

Personal Awards

Member All Tournament Team VTB United League PromoCup 2008.
Participants of the All- Star Game of the PBL 2011.

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